Re-locating the public commission Ooit somewhere else in Groningen in another university building.

The chosen location should be this building of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences called EnTranCe
Right now the work is in a storage. It had to be taken down because the building where it was doesn’t belong to the Groningen University any more.
The small bubbles and the big bubble face against the wall
4 men are needed to move it slightly away from the wall.
Once it was moved away from the wall I could get inside and see the state of the printed picture: totalled discoloured!
Discoloured! the big bubble was on top of the roof and caught direct sunlight and lost all its colours….

NEON WEKA is the company dealing with the possibility of the relocation, the same company that build the work 25 years ago.

There Is No Copyright On Laws
Public Commission for the Rechtbank Roermond

Article 11 of the Dutch Copyright Act states that, under the law, once a text has been edited, it enters the public domain. On the basis of this, a text can be altered as long as the spirit of the wording remains intact. A fact of which the art works created for the court rooms of the new court building of Roermond District Court take full advantage. Stripped of their formal legal language, legislative texts engage in a dialogue with the public and the users of the space.

The Judging Machine, perspex and shadow

Installations of meaning

Here, light and language are the materials that reveal the spirit of the space and restore this meaning to the legal texts in a very unusual way. The art works are installations of meaning that call upon all the interpretative faculties: the wording of the legislation is interpreted by using other forms of language but also through widely diverse graphic styles that serve the meaning of the work. The light itself “interprets’ the visual aspect of the work and projects its shadow on the wall.

Commissioned by:Rijksgebouwendienst
Completed:January 1994
Constructed byRob Nolte, Neon Weka, Holland
Toneelopvoering van art. 338
Toneelopvoering van art. 338
Welk Recht…?
Welk Recht…?
Berecht Me Maar
De Wet Word Gebruikt…

Ooit, which in English means something like ‘ever’, was designed for the newly built faculty of Economics of the Hanzehogeschool in the City of Groningen. The shape of the work was inspired by the bubbles used by cartoonists to show an idea taking shape. The oval and round shapes contain a digitally manipulated image of the Wadden area (a flat stretch of coast subjected to the continuous cycle of high and low tides). The word ‘Ooit’ or ‘ever’ has no set meaning – it refers to an indefinite, undefined time. Hence its connection with the marshy landscape which, with its vast spaces, summons up similar connotations. The landscape shown in the image seems to be hinged onto the horizon, reflecting clouds in the water’s surface.

The work seems to rise up out of the central hall of the building. The last oval is on the roof and forms a point of contact with the world outside the faculty building, also at night when the work lights up. Ooit’s contemplative character and its correlation with the advanced technology of which it is made, refer to the scholarly activities of the economics faculty.

The digitally manipulated images have been sprayed by airbrush technique onto canvas through which light can pass. The canvas is spanned on an aluminium construction within which neon lights have been attached. The image is visible on both sides of the ovals. The large oval is 300 cm wide, the other three shapes are round with a diameter of 160 cm, 120 cm and 90 cm respectively.

The newly built Faculty of Economics of the Hanzehogeschool is situated on the outskirts of the City of Groningen. Ooit’s is located in the central hall of the building.

Idee & execution: Martine Neddam
Commissioned by: Hanzehogeschool, Groningen
Completion 1995
Construction: Neon Weka, Holland

View of the work on top of the building

La Scala was designed for the theatre De Meerse in Hoofddorp. The work was named after the famous theatre in Milan. The origin of this work lies in language.

“La Scala” literally means ladder: the object placed on the roof of the theatre is a ladder of words. But the French word for ladder, l’echelle, also means ‘scale’ – the proportions of a map. This meaning evokes an idea of perspective: things that become smaller, vanishing into infinity. So doing, the ladder has been distorted and the perspective lines disappearing into the vanishing point have been emphasised.

View from a distance
  • Idee & execution: Martine Neddam
  • Commissioned by: Gemeente Haarlemmermeer
  • Constructor: Neon Weka, Holland
  • Completed: 1993
  • Removed : 2013